O’Beirne: ‘Strokestown Show a huge success’

The chairperson of Strokestown Agricultural Show, John O’Beirne has hailed last weekend’s event as a huge success and said that visiting judges were impressed with the high quality cattle on display.

Mr. O’Beirne said: “It was a brilliant show and the quality was superb. I had judges ringing me the next day to say they couldn’t get over the quality of stock at the show”.

The Strokestown Chairman added that the event “went like clockwork” and while the weather has been poor recently, the grounds help up well.

“There were 18 and 20 cattle in each class – I think the highest was 21 in one class. These are huge classes and you won’t get that in any other part of the country.

“Our All-Irelands went well too and Neven Maguire (celebrity chef) was a huge success. The food and drinks fair in general was ‘wedged’ across both days and that’s something we’ll be pushing more in the future,” he said.

Mr. O’Beirne said the Horse Show was also well received and the judges on the day were given a difficult task due to the quality on offer.

“There was a new ring for the horses in front of Strokestown Park House, which was ideal. The quality (of entries) was unbelievable and ittook our two judges from Cork and Kildare two hours to judge the event.

“We also had a huge Dog Show – I wouldn’t like to even guess how many dogs we had. The Show itself was, above all years, a huge success. It was also good to see a local man, Ciaran Clarke, winning the draw for a heifer,” he concluded.